Psychiatrist: Tate knew wrestling was fake

The defense in Lionel Tate's murder trial says that the boy was mimicking wrestling moves when he accidentally killed 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick.

But Tate, 13, knew wrestling was fake and had watched a documentary that explained how pro wrestlers fake moves and pull punches so they don't injure their opponent, a prosecution witness testified Thursday.

Psychologist Michael Brannon, who worked as pro wrestler "Dr. Red Roberts" for many years, was appointed by a Broward Circuit judge to evaluate Tate about three weeks after Tiffany died on July 28, 1999.

Brannon said he asked Tate if wrestling was real.

"At that point Lionel smiled and said 'No, it's all fake,'" Brannon testified. Brannon worked as a pro wrestler from 1978 to the mid-90s.

Tate is charged as an adult with first-degree murder.

His attorney, Jim Lewis, repeatedly has told the jury that Tate did not understand he could do so much damage by wrestling with Tiffany, who weighed less than one-third of Tate's 166-pounds.

Tate also told Brannon that wrestlers don't hit each other with enough force to hurt each other and that they couldn't go back to work each day if they fought as hard as it appears on TV, Brannon said. Tate explained that when wrestlers hit each other they stomp their feet and make a noise like they were hitting their opponent.

Brannon said he challenged Tate again about whether wrestling was real and Tate smiled.

"He said 'No, no they're not really hurting each other. It's not real,'" Brannon said.

Broward County Judge Joel T. Lazarus has ruled that the defense could not force celebrity pro wrestlers to testify as experts on how Lewis says they try to convince children that wrestling is real. But Brannon, who was called by the prosecution, gave jurors some insight into how wrestling was marketed and promoted in the early 1980s, when he was at the height of his career in that field.

He said promoters insisted at the time that wrestlers should do everything they could to convince the public that wrestling was real. Brannon said he did not even tell family members it was fake.

As Lewis quizzed Brannon about wrestling, he grew frustrated when Lazarus limited his questioning to Brannon's conversation with Tate. Lewis strongly objected to those limits and accused the judge of stripping him of his ability to adequately defend Tate.

The judge was "allowing the state to call a psychologist to negate the defense without letting the defense call a psychologist to bolster the defense," Lewis said.

Lazarus said he was not thwarting the defense, just requiring Lewis to comply with case law.

Lewis also tried and failed to introduce a video of a Sprite commercial that showed World Championship Wrestling celebrity Sting performing moves similar to the ones that Lewis said Tate mimicked with Tiffany.

But prosecutor Ken Padowitz objected, saying, "Wrestling's not on trial."

Lewis also said Tate did not necessarily learn how to fake moves by watching the TV documentary, and suggested Tate may have been trying to act out those same fake moves.

In other testimony Thursday, Broward Sheriff's Detective Ken Kaminsky said Tate told him that he had not told his mother what happened to Tiffany because he was scared. The prosecution finished presenting its side of the case Thursday with testimony from two pathologists who said Tiffany was beaten to death and it was no accident. The defense begins calling witnesses on Monday.

Paula McMahon can be reached at pmcmahon@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4533.